No one would imagine that there could be any connection between the 1.65-meter skinny Wu Fangmiao and the basketball game. Actually, the short boy with cerebral palsy is a basketball ace at the Special Olympics in Shanghai.

"I couldn't even lift my head up when I was nine months old. At the age of six, the doctor concluded that I wouldn't be able to walk independently when I grew up," said Wu in a speech given early this year. "The game has changed me a lot."

As a Special Olympic athlete Wu also made his appearance at the opening ceremony of the Games in Shanghai on October 2. Wu and another female athlete climbed from each end of a white great wall that was formed by numerous sticks in the hands of thousands of dancers dressed in white. The Special Olympics offers a great stage for many mentally disadvantaged people to change their lives.

"I can feel that they are climbing the real Great Wall, with the kind of spirit that they fight for their fate with," said the director of the opening ceremony Michel. In his eyes all the special athletes are being themselves instead of simply performing. "I know you can do it," the director often encourages them. In fact, "I know I can," the motto of the games, is the sentence that is most used by the special athletes.

The special athletes are older than 8, with an IQ below 70 and have received eight weeks or more physical training. The aim of the Olympic Games, under the motto of "faster, higher and stronger," is to challenge the limits of human beings, while the special Olympics challenges the individual limits of the competitor. For this year's event, more than 10,000 special athletes and coaches from 160 countries and regions have convened in Shanghai to compete in 21 sports events and enjoy four non-competitive events. These players, unsophisticated and innocent, have touched the people deep in their hearts and turned indifference into care and enthusiasm.

Often the intellectually underdeveloped experience prejudice that isolates them at home out of the public eye. In 1985 China began to get involved in the Special Olympics, but the event did not become popular due to a variety of social and economic reasons. "Someone even questioned us: would it be saying that we Chinese are nuts if we take part in the event?" said Wang Zhijun, Chairman of Special Olympics China.

Now people's attitude toward the mentally disadvantaged and the Special Olympics has drastically changed. In Shanghai and many other Chinese cities, people have become more engaged in caring for them, through donations, visiting and volunteering to take care of them. This year's Special Olympics Games will surely spread this caring atmosphere.

Encouragingly, an increasing number of Chinese are coming to the awareness that the event, and the physical training projects that surround it, not only improve the athletes' somatic functions but also reinforce their confidence to reintegrate into the community.

The international competition also facilitates the study of mental handicaps. In the past people considered the mentally retarded as "children who never grow up," believing their mental level could not improve, but that perception has been proved wrong.

It has been two decades since China became member of the Special Olympic family. So far 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China have Special Olympics establishments. For the present China is attempting to build a harmonious society full of care and integrity, which conforms to the ideals of the Special Olympics. China has become one of the fastest growing countries in Special Olympics. "The number of China's special athletes stood at 76,000 seven years ago and now it has increased to 600,000, making up a quarter of the global special athletes," said George Smith, Vice President and Senior Representative of Special Olympics International.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was present at the opening ceremony of the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games, praised the efforts that have been taken to boost China's role in the Special Olympics.

"The commitment made today by leaders from all sectors will help enhance the opportunities and rights of people with intellectual disabilities and the work of the Special Olympics worldwide," said Timothy P. Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics International.

"Through sport, the Special Olympics lays a foundation for community-based development and advancement; collaboration with global leaders extends reach even further for peace, prosperity and human dignity."

Statistics show that there are some 9.84 million people with intellectual disabilities in China. "We have worked out a new objective that by 2010 the number of China's special athletes will add up to 1 million," said Tang Xiaoquan, Vice President of China's Association for the Physically and Mentally Impaired.